The inspectors identified a Green non-cited violation of
10 CFR 50.55a(a)(3)(i), which requires that proposed alternatives to industry codes and standards provide an acceptable level of quality and safety. The NRC staff approved relief request REP-1 U2 dated March 28, 2007, for installing six structural
weld overlays on the pressurizer safety, relief, spray and surge nozzles. The request established acceptance criteria of laminar flaws during weld acceptance examinations limited to only the third 10-year inservice inspection interval. Contrary to the above, the licensee failed to identify unacceptable flaws as defined by the approved request following completion of these welds in 2008. The licensee entered the finding into their corrective action program as Notification 50540188. The inspectors determined that the licensees failure to identify indications that exceeded the acceptable linear dimension of laminar flaws prior to placing the system in service is a performance deficiency. The performance deficiency was more than minor because it is associated with the
Initiating Events Cornerstone attribute of equipment performance, and adversely affects the cornerstone objective to limit the likelihood of events that upset plant stability and challenge critical safety functions during shutdown as well as power operations. Specifically, during the months of February and March 2013, the licensee identified that three out of the six pressurizer structural
weld overlays exhibited laminar flaws that exceeded the linear dimensions approved by the safety evaluation. Using Manual Chapter 0609, Attachment A, The
Significance Determination Process (
SDP) for Findings At Power, the finding was determined to be of very low safety significance (Green) because the finding did not result in exceeding the
reactor coolant system leak rate for a small loss-of-coolant accident and did not affect other systems used to mitigate a loss-of-coolant accident resulting in a total loss of their function. This issue did not have a cross-cutting aspect associated with it because it is not indicative of current performance
